The Easiest Gluten Free and Vegan Chocolate Cake.

The easiest gluten free and vegan chocolate cake recipe. This delicious and simple cake is perfect for a birthday party, holiday, or any day that you want a sweet treat!

If you’re new to gluten free and allergy friendly baking, one of the first things you need is a great cake recipe. Chocolate cake, to be exact. Because you may have a birthday coming up, or you might just want to bake one afternoon. You need an easy recipe that’s no-fail and delicious. This is that chocolate cake recipe.

This gluten free and vegan chocolate cake uses basic ingredients and it is so easy to throw together. Mix it up and pop it in the oven, and 30 minutes later you have a fresh-baked chocolate cake ready to go. It can’t get any easier than that.

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Don’t be afraid of this cake, non-vegan friends. The vinegar and the baking soda combine so nicely to give it a nice lift, you would never guess that this cake does not contain eggs. It is really, really marvelous. It is possible to bake a delicious chocolate cake without eggs or gluten.

And if don’t need to be gluten free, go right ahead and use all-purpose flour! It works very well in this recipe – the cake will be a little lighter and less dense. Whatever flour you choose to use, this vegan chocolate cake will be a big hit.

You can use coconut oil or another oil if you prefer – you can even use melted vegan buttery spread. You can also make this in a round pan, or use this recipe to bake cupcakes. If you need to make a two-layer cake, just double the recipe.

FAQ about this gluten free and vegan chocolate cake:

Can I use coconut flour instead of gluten free flour?

No, that won’t work – you generally need eggs in order for coconut flour to be light and fluffy. If you use it in this recipe, you will have a dense, flat cake.

How about using almond meal?

If you want to use some almond meal, you can try using half almond meal and half gluten free flour blend. The cake will be a bit denser, and possibly more moist. I would not recommend using ONLY almond meal.

Can I use maple syrup instead of sugar?

I haven’t tried that. I would expect that the texture of the cake may change, and you would also need to use less water.

What can I use instead of vinegar?

Try a little lemon juice, that should work just as well as vinegar.

Where can I find gluten free baking powder?

Featherweight Baking Powder is gluten free and you can find it at Whole Foods, in some health food stores, and on Amazon (affiliate link).

My gluten free cakes usually sink in the middle? What am I doing wrong?

If your cakes sink in the middle, it’s likely because the middle wasn’t quite done baking. Stick a toothpick in the middle of the cake to see if it’s done – it should come out clean or with just a few crumbs. It should not have wet batter on it.

My cakes always take less/more time to bake than the recipe suggests – why is this?

If you use a different gluten free flour blend, it could change the amount of time required for baking. You may also want to check your oven temperature to make sure that it’s accurate.

Mom to two boys with food allergies and sensitivities, Kelly is passionate about allergy friendly cooking and baking. She believes that you can enjoy amazing, easy recipes even when cooking for multiple food allergies.

Looks like a good chocolate cake recipe! I would suggest using a different oil than canola as canola is a rancid inflammatory oil. It doesn’t matter if it’s organic. Because it’s inflammation inducing, it’ll end up making someone’s body more prone to allergies and illness. I wonder if avocado oil or coconut oil can be used instead of canola?

hi! Love the recipe. Just to put here that i used half the sugar and 5 or 6 stevia packs. Also the oil was cut to 1/4 cup and replace with 2 tablespoons of milk. Came out amazing! And i used bobs red mill gf mix.

Hi! this cake seems delicious and I’m planning to bake it tomorrow. But I have a question: I don’t see baking powder in the ingredients. But you even clarify in the Q&A where it can be bought. Do I need baking powder for this recipe or no? Thank you! Tania

The flavor was SPOT ON. My husband who hates cake is demolishing a plain piece in the kitchen right now. The crumb was really off though. Does the gf flour need to have xantham gum in it? I also cut it while it was still warm (I couldn’t wait anymore!). If I cut it cold, would that help with the crumb? I’m trying again tomorrow!

I just made this cake and I must say it is THEE best gf vegan cake I have ever made or tried. I did use coconut sugar and coconut oil as substitutes. I also toasted some unsweetened coconut flakes for the top after baking and it added the perfect touch for a little crunch texture. It was sooo moist and fluffy! very impressed with this one and it will be my go to foe parties for sure since I have several gf and vegan family members

We have been gluten, dairy and egg free for 4 years and this is by far THE BEST recipe I’ve made. I used large dark chocolate (dairy free) chips (instead of the mini ones) and they gave it just a little “crunch”. amazing.

Hi there, For the gluten free and vegan chocolate cake: What could I use to substitute 1/3 cup of canola oil in this recipe. Trying to make it plant based vegan for family member….no oil allowed…could I use applesauce? how much? Thank you.

This came out great…I have had almost no luck with gluten free + vegan baking but this was so easy and it just worked. Thank you!!! I topped mine with the powdered sugar, some roasted and chopped hazelnuts and a small bit of raspberry jam.

Hi. I live in Australia and can’t get that flour you had a link to. Do you have any idea how i could mix a flour that would work similar as the flours here are too gummy and don’t give a good result. Thank you.

I just made this the other day, with melted vegan buttery spread and I used Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 flour. The batter tasted great, the cake rose beautifully and smelled awesome, but it has such a funky aftertaste. I’ve baked with Bob’s Red Mill a few times and never had that issue. Any ideas? Maybe I just got a bad bag of flour?? I’m going to have to try this again with different flour, because everything else seemed so perfect, with the perfect dairy free peanut butter frosting on top! (I’m fairly new at the gf/vegan baking…it’s like learning to bake all over again!)

Quick question for you. I live in Portugal, where chocolate chips are hard to come by and expensive. I normally just substitute chips for some chopped up baking chocolate, however, I’d like to make two really large trays of this cake for a party, which means this recipe x8, and being a bit short on time I’d rather not chop that much chocolate by hand. Do you think it would affect the texture very much if I melted the same amount of chocolate and incorporated it into the batter, instead of using chips? Have you ever tried it? Thank you! :)

Very good. I made this recipe (with AP flour/not GF) and made the chocolate cake recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking and ate them side by side (don’t judge ). Yours was my favorite. Are you on Instagram? I couldn’t find you so I used #theprettybee.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and recipes. I am a new vegan due to health reasons. I made this for my birthday cake being a chocolate person and missing a slice of cake. I made substitutions for my diet I used unsweetened applesauce for the oil and maple syrup for the cane sugar. This is a wonderful recipe anyone should be able to enjoy.

Hi! A friend is allergic to many things, including gluten and eggs, and I was happy to have found this recipe.

So I tried this recipe for making cupcakes, except they taste absolutely horrible. What kind of cacao did you use? Because I think the horrible taste comes from the huge amount of cacao in this recipe. I’m in The Netherlands and so I’m able to get the very high quality Dutch processed cacao that has an incredibly strong taste. Also, I used a organic glutenfree flour blend that’s specifically of baking and it smelled of nothing, so I don’t think the taste could have come from the flour…

It also was pretty dense, though that may be because I switched the vinegar to lemon juice and needed a bit more of that then of vinegar (I personally detest the taste of vinegar and can taste even if there’s a tiny amount there so that’s why I used lemon juice). I might try this again with less cacao and hopefully it’ll taste better…

Just made this cake. It was really delicious! Followed the recipe exactly with 1-1 flour mix. Only issue I had was it was extremely crumbly. Like, when I put a fork into it the cake started to crumble apart and was hard to eat.

Do you think this was an issue of over baking? Any suggestions so I can get a more moist texture would be appreciated as I will definitely try making this again in the future. So easy and good! Thanks!

I have made this recipe twice now and followed the ingredients and amounts exactly. Unfortunately my cake doesn’t rise a super amount it’s not flat but certainly doesn’t look as risen as in your pictures. Any idea’s the flour blend I use is:

If I wanted to make a 6″ round cake to be covered in fondant/sugar paste would it stand up ok as a 5″ deep wedding cake top tier (also do you have a buttercream recipe that is suitable for under said sugar paste/fondant.

I have never been asked to make a GF/vegan cake before and am nervous as it is for a wedding cake of a colleague!